Hi, so I noticed we're all still playing lockdown on teamplay! Go figure. There must be a reason - maybe it's because it's one of the base maps, everybody knows it and people stick to what they know. Also it's great fun skulking the corridors for people to kill, it's dark and creepy. There's something about the feeling connected to this map, I dunno but people still love 'locky'. That's why I wanted to start a blog, to talk about why we love lockdown and corridor gameplay, and take something from that to make a new map.

Watch it at time 5.05. Didn't you just love running down a seemingly endless corridor blasting away at hordes of enemies? I did I loved the idea of run and gun, it's so easy to get into and instantly gratifying. That's some of what lockdown has, the old days of run and gun. Anyone remember TimeSplitters 2? There was a simplistic map editor where you could cut and paste prefab corridors into a map of any layout. We spent about half an hour piecing together a series of corridors into a very long corridor. The result was great fun, in a full game of 3 humans and 9 bots there was nowhere to run, you had to gun your way past everybody, or run the other way to get the weapons and turn the tables on your foes. Going back to doom, I think the thing I loved most about doom was playing on the hardest setting, running away from the hordes with my health level close to death. That was scary. Naturally, the very long corridor in lockdown reminds me of this time. And this leads me on to an idea: a dm map that is essentially a very long corridor, albeit with rooms attached along the way. There will players forced to turn and run away from automatic fire, desperate to find health and guns. Absolute Panic! Like running from the ghosts in PacMan. And for teamplay, an opportunity to work together to dominate the corridor.

Some inspiration from doom 3.

Imagine this, rebels start on one end, combine on the other, they work together to get down the corridor and occupy their base. A full server would be carnage and panic! But with good cover and thoughtful planning.

I'd like to extend out an invitation to keep on discussing what you think is great about the 'lockdown experience'. I'll be blogging my work in progress, my rough sketch is below.

Same here, not a lover of this map. I think its more to do with a team play map.
With corridor maps a combine ball or a prop to fire, job done. Not much skill but plenty of fragging carnage, good for newbies to learn on and some never progress.

My love of the TSGK servers was born on the council map, i loved sniping across large areas and when i got better running around with a saw blade and grav gun._________________

I once played on a map that was a few rooms connected through corridors so narrow there was barely any movement possible from side to side, that one was a lot of fun so I see good potential in this map, just leave out combine balls and don't add many props or even better no props or no heavy props. xbow, 357, grenades and shotgun would be the main weapons for this kind of map I think._________________

I miss playing council too Maybe Osi would reinvigorate the council scene by hosting dm_council_two?

Today's topic:

Height and cover. What's the most inventive way you have scene height or cover being used?

I wanted to keep my idea of this level being like a corridor or gauntlet. I tried to add some corridors off the central corridor to add some flavour, but it defeated the point of the 'gauntlet' idea of having to head through the map in a straight and defeat all that got in the way. I was left scratching my head until a couple of days later when I started to think about using height within the same corridor. Now I have a corridor with different height levels, incorporating pipes, vents, shields and ladders. The result is I've managed to keep to the theme but add some variety in play, and hopefully create some teamplay aspects. I want the player to think about using height and cover to win the game, by making them quickly and easily accessible, so that they seem a part of the corridor's make up. Props haven't been added yet, but I was also thinking of using some props as cover too, if the player were to using the gravity gun and run with it. Finally I'd like to provide at a later stage in development some ammo and weapon racks at intervals so that players chasing the corridor can load up so that they are ready to run and gun, or when being chased they can take a breather with some cover.

I hope with some careful thought I can make the level play with the ability to make jumps from cover to cover to avoid the inevitable relentless gunfire down the corridor.

An afterthought: Maybe I should add some cover shields in the middle of the corridor? Or would that break the flow?

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forumYou cannot post calendar events in this forum